Giant winger Taqele Naiyaravoro is poised to fill one of the vacant spots in the NSW Waratahs team for the first game of their Super Rugby title defence against the Western Force on Sunday.

Naiyaravoro, who played a handful of games off the bench last season after switching over from the Wests Tigers NRL club, is tipped to fill the spot vacated by Alofa Alofa, who moved to French club La Rochelle after the 2014 Super Rugby final.

The 194cm, 123kg Fijian has scored three tries in two trial matches and looks to have an early season edge over veteran Matt Carraro, youngster Andrew Kellaway and Test winger Peter Betham, who missed both trials but is available for Sunday.

“Taqele is definitely in the pole position because you ask players to train hard and then perform in the pre-season matches and he has done both,” said coach Michael Cheika.

“Based on that you have to look at giving him a run.”

Cheika could have his entire squad at his disposal, with lock Mitchell Chapman the only doubt, after copping a head knock in last week’s trial against the Chiefs.

“He’s gone through the first step yesterday and he’s passed that, so we’ll see how he pulls up after (non-contact training) today,” Cheika said.

He said regular captain Dave Dennis, who played 40 minutes at lock last week in his first match back from a knee reconstruction, could start or come off the bench.

Cheika also said former Warriors NRL player Sam Lousi could be the man to replace departed Wallabies lock Kane Douglas in the longer term, and could even be an outside chance to make the match day 23 this weekend.